On 26 January 2021, the Snooker German Masters took place at the Tempdu Music Center in Berlin. Zhao Xintong and Zhou Yuelong defeated their respective opponents to advance to the round of 16. Four of the seven TOP16 players on the day were hit by a round trip, and two of the main contenders for the tournament spot (McGill and Maguire) have withdrawn from the competition.
"The most accurate man in the world" and "the most accurate boy in the world" met in the first round of the German Masters. In this battle of accuracy, Zhao Xintong had the upper hand, and with the success rate of 7 attacks and 7 goals, Zhao Xintong took a 3-1 lead in the first half. Returning from a break, Williams fired two consecutive 60+ shots to reach a 3-3 draw. At the critical moment, Zhao Xintong scored a single 89 points, 4-2 to win the match point, and completed a single 70 points after playing with a far table combination in the 8th set, beating Williams 5-3.
In the first half of the season, Zhou Yuelong missed four of the eight ranking tournaments due to either active or passive reasons. Coming to Berlin, Zhou Yuelong showed a long-lost good state after the opening, playing a single 96, 74, 67 points, winning three consecutive sets. After that, Zhou Yuelong won the match point 4-1 and beat McGill 5-2. Zhang Anda once fought with Brechel to a 3-3 draw, but lost two consecutive sets in the final moments, losing 3-5.
Karen Wilson shot a 1-shot 100 and a 3-50+ to beat Jimmy Robertson 5-1. Interestingly, Karen Wilson was long the last player to lose outside the UK (losing to Trump in the 2020 Gibraltar Open final); now he is the first player in two years to win a tournament outside the UK.
Wilson had a special motivation in this game, which was to fight for his former agent, the late Snooker promoter Brand Parker. The latter was the most important promoter of the success of the German Masters in 2011, which has gradually developed into one of the most eye-catching competitions in the competition calendar. Brandon Pat died of an unfortunate illness in 2019 and now the German Masters trophy bears his name.
Due to Gao Yang's withdrawal, Trump directly advanced to the final, and only three matches were played in the local evening. Maguire opened the game with a single score of 135 points, becoming the highest score in the tournament, and Forde then scored 76, 88, 53 and 81 points in a row to win the match point 4-1 and score a single 107 points in the seventh game to beat Maguire 5-2.
Wharton scored 71, 79 and 124 consecutive points 2-3 to reverse Neil Robertson 5-3. Veteran Stederman scored 4-0 with 130, 65, 70 and 52 points to beat amateur Georgiou 5-1.
After the first day, three of the seven top 16 players advanced (Zhao Xintong, Karen Wilson, Brechel) and four out (McGill, Williams, Maguire, Neil Robertson). The two main contenders for the players' championship seat (McGill and Maguire) are out of the competition, Selby can squeeze hawkins as long as he reaches the quarter-finals, and the non-single-season top 16 players in the first half of the zone can also win a players' championship seat by winning the championship.
Results on the 26th (Round 1).
A. McGill 2-5 Zhou Yuelong, Zhao Xintong 5-3 M. Williams
K. Wilson 5-1 J. Robertson, Anda 3-5 L. Brechel
J. Trump Promotion - Retirement Gao Yang, T. Forde 5-2 S. Maguire
M. GeorgeU 2-5 C. Staidemann, R. Wharton 5-3 N. Robertson
27th (Round 1 +1/8 Finals) Schedule
17:00
A. Higginson Promotion - Retirement Liang Wenbo, L. Hayfield VS Fan Zhengyi
Lv Haotian vs M. Allen, B. Pinkies vs M. Selby
22:00
K. Maflin vs. S. Murphy, N. Thornham vs. R. Day
S. Craig vs. K. Dahdi, D. Gilbert vs. Yan Bingtao
27:00
J. Trump vs Zhou Yuelong, T. Fude vs Zhao Xintong
K. Wilson vs. C. Steadman, L. Brechel vs. R. Wharton